Saturday, December 28, 2013

Many where the collaborations between Rene Cardona and
producer, screenwriter, actor Alfredo Salazar, and many a great film did their
many collaborations birth, movies that make up the cream of the crop of Mexican
genre!

A passion for mixing and meshing luchadores and luchadoras
against any monster conceivable, Salazar’s story for The Batwoman basically
reuses the same plot as he’d used several times before (and would again) - a mad scientist playing God, which becomes the enticing incident for our protagonists to get involved. Mexican
lucha libre flicks had in the last couple of years been inspired by James Bond
spy escapades and the success of William Dozier’sBatman TV series. Salazar had
already proven that he had quite a talent for penning movies that featured
strong female protagonists, Las luchadoras contra el medico asesino (Doctor of Doom)
1963, Las luchadoras contra la momia (Wrestling Woman vs. the Aztec Mummy) 1964, La mujer murciélago and later La horripilante bestia humana (Night of the Bloody Apes)1969 – all directed by Cardona
Snr. All movies have in common that they lead is a strong female character,
wrestling takes place both inside and outside of the ring, and villainous
scientists with a fiendish plan to take over the world!Oh and none of the women take any crap from
any man.

Batwoman’s alter ego is rich society chick Gloria. Gloria’s
secret is that she moonlights as a masked luchadora in the ring, but is also a renowned
secret agent who hides her identify behind the mask of Batwoman. None other
than the gorgeous Maura Monti plays Batwoman. Monti, another one of those
fantastic women who made something of a micro career in Mexican movies, similar
to that on Elizabeth Campbell, starred in more than thirty films before
retiring when her husband asked her to. So even though she had a short and intensive career, the movies she left behind are great pieces of work.

A string of mysterious murders, leaving strong hefty athletes of Acapulco washed up on the shores, have the police left clueless. Detective Tony Roca [Cardona regular Armando Silvestre] has noted a series
of similar crimes in Macao and Hong-Kong. Special agent FBI Mario Robles
[Héctor Godoy] is also on the case and has brought in a secret weapon:
Batwoman! [Monti] Swanky jazz flows over the soundtrack and a lengthy introduction
to Batwoman is given showing her in various sport and physical activities such
as horseback riding, and free diving, before she’s into the ring for a few
shots of her fighting skills. Making a show stopping entrance only suitable of
a secret agent, Batwoman parachutes into town in full outfit, cape, mask, and
bikini…

With Batwoman presented, it is time to introduce the antagonists. On a
boat called Reptilicus, Mad Surgeon Dr. Williams [Roberto Cañeda – certainly no
stranger to playing mad scientists in Mexican genre pieces] complete with loony
assistant called Igor, is busy at work trying to create a hideous Fish-Man hybrid!
Failing miserably again, he sends out his minions to kidnap yet another athlete
– because you kind of know that Dr. Williams is the murdering maniac
responsible for all those dead athletes washing up on the shore. Tricking a
wrestler known only as “Swedish” [Manuel Cappelito] out on a fishing trip, he’s
kidnapped and strapped tightly to Dr. Williams operating table. Triumph at last
– although we never see any of the operation, we do get to see the dodgy
fish-man swimming along the ocean floor on a monitor as Dr. Williams laughs
sardonically and proclaims his experiment a success!

Gloria - Batwoman to you and me - meets up with Tony Roca and
Mario Robles who quite clumsily bring us up to speed – as if you didn’t get
what you’d seen in the last ten minutes – and after realizing that they have
come to a stand still, as prime suspect Dr. Williams, refuses to let them enter
his boat, Batwoman has to don the mask and sneak onto the aquatic laboratory!
Sneaking around the place, she just about discovers Dr. Williams’s secret lab
and sees what she think might be a Fish-Man hybrid before she’s discovered. Is
the end nigh? No my friends this is merely the end of act one, as Batwoman
grabs a jug of acid and splashes it across Dr. Williams face and makes her
escape as he, bleeding and in pain from his melting face, commands his men to catch
her at any cost, she will be his piece de resistance – Fish Woman!

As far as the art of storytelling goes, The Batwoman is something
of a delightful mess. It’s terribly straightforward and there’s never really
any mystery, as we know from the start whom the villain is, and what his
fiendish plan is. But at the end of the day, it’s not really the depth of the
story you are here for – albeit extremely psychotronic indeed – you are here
for the wild ride, the amazing fish-man experiments, the fiendish villains, the
car chases, the quirky surf rock soundtrack and for Maura Monti!

Halfway in, Fish-Man finally makes his appearance, and it’s
almost a cheap kaiju feeling to his presence, but by gosh does the action pick
up, Fish-man fighting Batwoman underwater is fascinating and certainly rings
Creature from the Black Lagoon. He may not have received the credit he was due, but Alfonso Bárcenas
Fish-Man is rad, and without any doubt the centrepiece of the movie, along side
Monti’s swanky Batwoman that is!

As the climax approaches, Roca, Robles and Batwoman
all find themselves captured by Dr. Williams who seems to be getting away with
his plan of using Batwoman to create a better Fish-human hybrid, and you’ll
never guess who comes to the rescue...

The Batwoman is a butt-kicking funfest filled with some
really fantastic moments of Salazar/Cardona madness. Swinging surf music,
swirly scene transitions, speedy car chases, underwater action and loads of
cheesy fights! Although I’m not sure that it’s Monti in the Batwoman suit
during the actual Luchadora sequences, as body shape somewhat changes! Monti totally
rocks the as the suave, sexy, tongue in cheek, ass whipping Batwoman, and she
most certainly is one of Salazar’s strong female characters, although one odd
detail closes the movie. A last minute gag, perhaps included to assure the male
audience that they still had the upper hand, a sign that Batwoman has her
weakness too… In the vein of classic horror, going for one last shock, Salazar
and Cardona go for one last kick as Gloria (Batwoman out of suit) leisurely
stands at a bar taking in a drink with the two leading men as they celebrate
their victory (as in the male detectives, not Batwoman’s as they still don’t
know Gloria is Batwoman) and suddenly Gloria belts out a high pitched scream
queen scream at something off screen… you may think it’s Fish-Man coming for
one last attack, but you are wrong. It’s a mouse. Contradicting everything that
Salazar has built up with the strong female character, Gloria is in that last
scene, reduced to nothing but a stereotypical woman, weak, needing the help of
strong men, and terrified of mice.I
chose to read it as Gloria staying in character, sticking to the façade of her
alternative persona, keeping the men in the dark, that underneath all that
hair, makeup and chic designer dresses, she is THE BATWOMAN!

The Batwoman is top-notch Mexican psychotronica! A must for fans of hot chicks
kicking ass, rubber-suited monster men and lucha libre! All hail Alfredo
Salazar and Rene Cardona and the cinematic legacy they left behind for fans of
wild and crazy cinema. Viva!

Monday, December 23, 2013

If you
where Bruno Ganz character, the angel Damiel, in Wim Wenders magnificent The
Wings of Desire you’d be able to hear me thinking “I’m not going to write a
best of the year list, I’m Not going to write a best the year of list, I AM NOT
GOING TO WRITE A BEST OF THE YEAR LIST…”

No, I’m NOT
going to write a best of the year list, but instead I will give you these 205 lines
about 38 films…

…and so
begineth the rant…

The good
stuff starts with Rob Zombie shoving things back into Zombieville with his
story of a former junkie/radio DJ with a past that linked her to the Salem
witch trials. Personally I don’t care much for his Halloween instalments, as I
think of Zombie as much more original than a franchise-wrangler. Just listen to
his music, weird, psychotronic, kickassy and perhaps most of all a fantastic
mix of horror homage and geekery. Hence my soft spot for his original work more
than the pack-em-wrack-em foolery. THE LORDS OF SALEM is everything that is Rob
Zombie! A fine piece of possession and witchcraft mash-up with an over the top
finale just like Zombie’s music. Kicks ass and delivers.

Adam
Rehmeier once told me that he’d never finish the trilogy that The Bunny Game
starts off with. He said that he’d never tell the story of what happened to
“Bunny” after Jonas drives off with her in that white van at the end of that
harrowing movie… although he did tell the tale of Jonas and how he – at least
as I interpret it – tries to redeem himself of the wrongs that took place
between The Bunny Game and the opening second chance birthing metaphor at the
start of JONAS. Perhaps not as graphically tormenting as The Bunny Game,
although never the less JONAS is haunting, suggestive, imaginative and captivating.
I’m fascinated by Rehmeier’s techniques as he constantly turns out through
provoking, engaging and stunning movies by his minimalistic method of
improvised storytelling!

Comedy and
the end of mankind never really blend well, but Edgar Wright gave it his best
shot with THE WORLDS END, about five mates getting back together again after
twenty years to go on a- almost like an
inverted coming of age flick and despite being fun and Edgar Wright-Simon Peggy
in all the right places it failed for me as unlike all their earlier characters
as Gary King is just a twat without any redeeming qualities, uncomfortably too
much like way to many 40 something’s that I know. Loved the cast, loved the
story, loved the wild twists bug couldn’t give a toss about Gary King. Someone
who did get it right was Even Goldberg and Seth Rogan who with their THIS IS
THE END just managed to get the right blend of Rogan, Jay Baruchel, James
Franco, Johan Hill being the characters you’d think them to be, and Emma Watson
in a great part! Death, destruction and dope with plenty of funny gags about us
all being fucked!

End of the
world, or start of a new era, which ever it may be, Lloyd Kaufman nailed
another hilarious gem filled with farts, body fluids and nudity laden splatter slapstick
with his THE RETURN TO NUKE ‘EM HIGH Vol 1. delivering just about everything you
could expect from a Troma movie and the always-present car explosion. It also
mimicked the original Carrie in one of the greatest cliff-hangers in ages,
let’s just hope that part two hits as soon as possible.

Intermission
time, and here’s some popcorn flicks that got the job done: AFTERSHOCK was a
great way to watch people die horrible deaths and perhaps a showcase of Eli
Roth being a better actor than director (although I still haven’t seen The
Green Inferno, and I do kinda like Hostel II). You’re Next was fun, fast,
furious but predictable, although did deliver some really great mainstream
horror moments. The winner of best mainstream horror this year was undoubtedly
James Wan’s THE CONJURING. Perfect piece of fluff that taunted the audience
with the “will he or won’t he jump scare us" approach that he used
throughout the flick. And who can resist a movie with Lili Taylor! THE PURGE
may not have been a horror flick, but it definitely came out of nowhere with
it’s interesting premise and some tense moments.

And the
masked killer theme kept on with, YOU’RE NEXT! enjoyed some good reviews and started
being hailed as the best flick of the year… well it sure was intense and it
packs a punch, but not the best film of the year, although it is one of my faves
and good enough to be one of the films to make it onto this best of the year
review. Giallo was represented by Federico Zampaglione’s polished TULPA, which
was everything that Giallo used to be! Fede Alvarez did what he could with EVIL
DEAD and managed to update the deadite universe decently, and despite me being
ready to leave when Mia came back to life, he managed to pull me back in and
nail me to my seat with those last ten minutes of concentrated intensity! It
would have been great with a new Evil Dead flick if not for the fact that the
thunder was stolen right under them by a little flick called WITHER! A Swedish
horror flick inspired by Evil Dead and totally impressed the boots off me!
These guys are the ones to keep track of in the years to come!

Back to our
ranting, and Xan
Cassavetes THE KISS OF THE DAMNED! How the heck can’t one fall head over heels
in love with a movie that feels like Jean Rollin as told by American
Independent filmmaking? Or remember the first time you played Castle Wolfenstein
and the first player shooter interface blew your mind! Well, mix that with mutant
Nazi monsters, a Russian documentary team and Victor Frankenstein and you get
Richard Raaphorst long awaited FRANKENSTEIN’S ARMY, which would perhaps have
done better without the found footage waste of time approach, but get’s in
there and delivers more or less everything that I’ve been dreaming of since
that initial Worst Case Scenario trailer hit a few years back!

It’s not
all make believe, some of it is for real, documentaries that stuck with me this
year are THE AMERICAN SCREAM which told the tale of three amateur home haunts.
Each Halloween they open their back yards for visitors to roam the spooktacular
home haunts they have built there. A nice story, great characters, but not
quite as cool as MONSTERS WANTED which totally grabbed me with the story of
Rich and Janel as they shared their dream of creating a whopper of a haunt all
financed out of their own pocket… the big difference between the two
documentaries with their similar premises was that Rich and Janel’s story
totally engaged in a much more deeper way that The American Scream and it
really showed just how deep into personal hell they where ready to go to
achieve their dream. Great stuff!

Closing in
to the best shit of the year, let’s ventilate some thoughts on some of the
stuff that got hyped, but was lacking… WORLD WAR Z what a fucking sleeper,
James Bond meets McGyver with zombies… the less we talk about it the better for
all of us, I might give it a second shot when the sequel hits… talking of
sequels… I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE 2… oh my. More like I shit on your genre too! And
whilst we are shitting on genre… TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D… the only movie I turned off this year, and nobody even broke the door!

The
definition of feminist horror is sloppily put as “Female victim killing off all
her antagonists”, although Karen Lam’s EVANGELINE works by that formula, it was
first when she told me “I didn’t want her to be screaming or moaning sexually
when he raped her. All that has to come from him, the antagonist!” that I
actually got what Lam’s take on feminist horror was. Lam’s flick grows on me
for each time I think of it, and still stands out amongst the “rape-revenge
flicks” and feminist approach. Revenge and feminist film was also served up in Marina
de Van’s utmost intriguing DARK TOUCH, which took “the psychic kid” to levels
up and beyond Carrie. Dark, very dark, almost shot completely in the dark and
extremely suggestive, but beautiful, creepy and powerful stuff.

After being
the wunderkind of Mexican cheap trash for the last few years, Adrián Garciá
Bogliano ended this year on a high of hype from most major genre press… although as often is the case with hype, the
words of Flavour Flav and Chuck D ring through the air… “Don’t Believe the
Hype!”HERE COMES THE DEVILis a neat and groovy little drama using
horror elements and a decent core story about a family whose two children
become possessed by evil forces, but it’s nothing like the movies that made him
a highlighted “guy to keep track of” to start with. This movie is a victim of
great marketing and a topfuckingnotch trailer, but it will undoubtedly scare
anyone off backtracking his catalogue back to the early gems. I get the feeling
that this is all that he could cope with after being part of The ABC’s Of
Death, perhaps compromising his style and tone, and hence an easy cop out. But
never mind the bollocks, it’s a cool movie, tarnished by the simple fact that
it’s nowhere near his earlier flicks! Technically last year, but no film put a
bigger smile on my face than the meta backstage dabbling, off-screen dweller,
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO and the fantastic Tobey Jones, as it dabbled behind the
scenes of Italian genre film in pulling familiar referents out of the bag like
there was no tomorrow! Not to mention all the great old films it made me go
back and re-watch. PACIFIC RIM, I loved it, Del Toro is the man, and if nothing
else, it could be a little teaser of what Legendary Studios will do with
Godzilla, about to stomp all over screens in a few months.

Grab your
asbestos gloves, because things are getting hot now as we move into the final
flicks, and the ones that shaped the cinematic year of 2013!

Ok, let’s
go off topic for a short Spring Break, spring break, spriiiiinnnggg breeeaaaakkk…
Harmony Korine’s SPRINGBREAKERS, fucking brilliant. Weird, suggestive,
non-linear shit, just like being drunk, a complete antithesis of the slurred
mess that was THE BLING RING... and talking about being drunk, Ben Wheatley
safely hung onto his spot as one of the most fascinating directors to come out
of the UK with the dreamy arty farty, black and white nightmarish field trip A FIELD
IN ENGLAND. Death metal, dopey mushrooms and a smashing cast! The splatter and
gore division knocked one out of the park with STALLED, a fantastic take on the
old – locked in a tight space whist zombies shuffle around outside – premise…
and comedy… and stupendous gore… and toilets.

Andrey
Iskanov’s TOCHKA! Yes, this may be somewhat controversial as Iskanov’s latest
piece of madness (designated to be part of Profane Exhibit) still isn’t
released, but I was lucky enough to see Andrey’s long version, all 26 minutes
of it, and it was a mind blower, a heart breaker, and a fucking nightmare of
deep dark horror. I’ve also seen other parts of this anthology flick, but none
stand up to Tochka. Just like the yet to be released short I AM MONSTER, a delightful
play on genre and gender served up in a morgue by Shanon Lark and Lori Bowen. I enjoyed AMERICAN MARY, and it got the job done, but I wanted more! Invaders
from Mars where featured in both V/H/S 2 (which should have stayed S-V/H/S)
with its “better than the original” wrap around story, and DARK SKIES, which
surprised me with it’s great less is more and greys approach.

Comedy and horror, tricky business, but Don Coscarelli has always managed to balance
them well in his dark stories, and JOHN DIES AT THE END is no exception. Fun,
fast and definitely an unexpected delight of 2013 – and I managed to revisit it
twice and it was just as good, if not better, the second time around.

Oliver
Beguin’s stunning approach to what is the most misused and predictive sub niche
of all time, Vampires and lost love, manages to bring the horror of loosing
oneself, love and identity, and finding it all over again… and avenging wrongs
into one hot hammering mix. CHIMÈRES is a stunning movie, meditative,
passionate and addictive. If Vampire stories are all about love, well then this
one is all about what you will do for love, and the love in CHIMÈRES takes them
pretty far into dark areas. Featuring Catriona MacColl holds a small part, there’s
a cameo by Ruggero Deodato and packed with David Scherer's magnificent special effects, CHIMÈRES brings back the originality to the vampire
flick which that tired old genre has s been lacking for ages!

Israeli duo
Navot Papushado and Aharon Keshales follow up the smashing debut flick Rabies
with a second piece of genre fare. BIG BAD WOLVES captivates its audience from
the first moment and after grabbing it’s audience in a hard empathetic grip thanks
to anti-hero Miki [Lior Ashkenazi], it quickly becomes a riveting piece of
suspense that will buzz you just like when you lick batteries!

The
original was a great study of a family falling apart as the family patriarch
suddenly was taken from them filled with dark humor and catholic guilt. The
religious guilt is still present in the American remake sets the story in a
small tiny rural setting. Mom dies, dad get’s depressed, the change of
responsibility within the family over who has to prepare the human sacrifice
ahead of their flesh-eating ritual shatters the family and positions the
children against their patriarchal father. Jim Mickle’s WE ARE WHAT WE ARE is a
fantastic piece of American Gothic! Guilt, Judgment and some fucking amazing
cinematography make this one a no brainer for best film of the year lists. (And
the great Eric Stanze shot second unit on this gorgeous movie, making it worth
the watch just for that!)

The slow
rot of a melancholic young woman… Canadian Éric Falardeau delivered THE most
powerful “knock you down and don’t fucking get up again” movie of the year– the philosophical, existentialistic horror
movie THANATOMORPHOSE The emancipation of a young woman through her own death… re-defining
her self as a woman, freeing her self from the objectification and positioning
that she has in all her relationships. It is dark and disturbing, but
wonderfully poetic and meditative film that almost chokes its audience before
violently letting go in the most cathartic finale this year. I’ve been back to
this film three times since first watching it early 2013, and each time it
get’s deep in my head as the poetic necrophilic romance that lead actress
Kayden Rose and director Éric Falardeau create in this cult masterpiece, the
best movie of 2013. (Oh and it also has special effects by the majestic David Scherer!)

Because it
would kill me to write ten lines about five flicks right…. Now back to regular
programing.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Of all the
antagonists the legendary Blue Demon faced, the question is if the giant
brain eating alien spiders of Arañas Infernales don't take the price for being the most surreal! The second of his solo movies, the last of the black and white Blue Demon films, and also the final
collaboration between producer/writer Luis Enrique Vergara and Blue Demon, Arañas Infernales was for decades considered to be one of the “Lost” Blue Demon films. But
in 1999 a print turned up on Mexican television and later it was released domestically on DVD. So
there’s no time for sad faces, as Arañas Infernales has returned from the
vaults of the lost, and now can be enjoyed as the delightful cocktail of multiple
sub-genres in one supersonic death ray that it is!

Starting
off with a wonderful scene of a spaceship shooting laser beams at stuff off
screen and then hovering down over earth, whilst the voice over establishes the
threat of the alien invaders from the galaxy of Arachnea, the whole
thing is cross cut with our hero, Blue Demon in the mandatory opening wrestling
match. As you see this is a movie that catches fans of pscyhotronica, sci-fi or even Lucha libre
from the word go.

Blue walks
away from the opening fight victorious of course, and as he and his mate drive
home their car strangely breaks down, a buzzing light is seen on the horizon
and they find a car on the side of the road with a smoking skeleton slumped
over the steering wheel. A hot space
alien, Queen Arianec [Martha Elena Cervantes], semi hiding in the shadows, hypnotizes
some dopey blokes and tells them about the space spider plan to steal humans
and feed off their brains. The goons reveal the sign of the spider at the back
of their necks (used to reveal who’s bad and not every time the camera zooms in
on their spider marks through out the flick) and stumble off to carry out the
fiendish plan… the plot thickens, but first another fight, this time a tag team
match, and Blue wins this one too.

A poor
couple are jumped in a dark alley, he knocked out, and she kidnapped and fed to
a giant spider that lurks in a giant web out in the woods. Blue Demon and mates
take a trip out to the spot where they saw the strange stuff the previous
night, only to be attacked buy the alien queen, stunning rays of audio and
caped goons… a fight breaks out and Blue does his thing! Queen Arianec sends
her goons off to fight Blue who starts to put one and one together, realizing
that there’s something off on the go… something to do with that spaceship he saw
earlier on. Struggle, struggle, struggle, plot, plot, plot, busted by Blue,
busted by Blue, busted by Blue and so on with a few unfortunate victims falling
prey to the giant spider (which you may have figured out is Arianec already),
and a sturdy chug forth to a final climactic battle between Blue Demon and
Prince Arac [Fernando Osés] who’s come to help Arianec drain the world of human
brains.

Turning it
up to eleven for the final act, the aliens infiltrate Blue’s next big
bash in the ring arming his opponent, the sardonic Prince Arac with a deadly weapon! For each blow
Blue serves up, Prince Arac slowly transforms into a spider handed fiend! You
have to see it to believe it… or just check out the awesome Ricardo Sáinz special effect
below, but if nothing else, this is some fantastically trippy stuff and I love
every minute of it!A classic set up if
there ever was one follows as Blue’s mates Joseph [Virel Sergio] and Hilda
[Blanca Sánchez] are kidnapped during one the climax of Prince Arac and Blue
Demon’s fight – and you know what happens when Blue’s mates get kidnapped, it’s
shit kickin’ time, even if it means Blue Demon has to fight off giant spiders, wrestle
space aliens and

Show
stopping highlights in this wonderfully weird flick are a dog being shot by the
space aliens and becoming a smouldering heap of bones (yes, think Mars Attacks), a wicked scene where
Queen Aracnia space rays a goon to keep him from revealing them (think Dalek death rays), Prince Arc
entering the ring and his opponents laughing at him before he beats them silly
with just a few power punches and needless to say the fantasticly goofy giant
spider!

Supposedly the
scenes of flying saucer scenes where lifted from (yes, as in nicked) from Ed D.
Wood Jr’s Plan 9 from Outer Space and Tom Graeff’sTeenagers from Out of Space,
but who cares, this is super schlocky sci-fi, Lucha libre fun, a must see for
fans of Blue Demon and cheap space invasion flicks. With that
said, it’s time to right a wrong, as Gustavo Caésar Carrión at times get’s
credit for the eerie space age soundtrack, although this is unfortunately not
right. The composer on Arañas Infernales was Jorge Perez Herrera, and quite a
lot of the warbly sci-fi schlock comes right off the legendary Dick Jacobs and
His Orchestra Themes from Horror Movies LP from 1959.

Following
this delicious black and white battle against spider aliens from outer space,
Blue Demon returned in the colourful and lush Blue Demon vs. las Diabólicas
(Blue Demon vs. the Diabolical Women) in 1966.